Jeanne Cavelos at Cybling!

Jeanne Cavelos March 2001

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Jeanne is a writer, editor, scientist, and teacher. She began her professional life as an astrophysicist and mathematician, teaching astronomy at Michigan State University and Cornell University, and working in the Astronaut Training Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

She then moved into a career in publishing, becoming a senior editor at Dell Publishing, where she created and launched the Abyss imprint of psychological horror, for which she won the World Fantasy Award, and the Cutting Edgeimprint of literary fiction. She also ran the science fiction/fantasy publishing program. In addition, she edited a wide range of fiction and nonfiction.

A few years ago, she left New York to become a freelance editor and pursue her own writing career.

Jeanne is also the author of THE SCIENCE OF THE X-FILES, which has just been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, and the BABYLON 5 novel THE SHADOW WITHIN.

For a more complete version of her bio, as well as her bibliography, awards, and other important data, please visit Jeanne Cavelos' Home Page

The
March 2001 Q&A

Atvar Tonight, Cybling is proud to present Jeanne Cavelos!!!
* SteveL applauds
Atvar Author of the Science of Star Wars
Atvar and many other great books
St4rchild Jeanne, I've had your X-Files book in my library for awhile. It's good.
Jeanne Thanks.
Atvar Jeanne, would you like to begin by introducing yourself?
Jeanne Okay. I started out as an astrophysicist. My goal was to become . . .
Jeanne an astronaut, just like Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes. Of course we all know what happened to him, so that may have been an odd career choice . . .
Atvar LOL!
St4rchild hehe
Jeanne Eventually I decided that the scientific issues I was interested in were too weird for NASA and that I wanted to explore the big issues through science fiction So I quit NASA, wrote an awful novel, and then went back to college and got a Master's in Creative Writing.
Atvar I wanted to be an Astronaut, but am now an Auditor (
Jeanne Close . . . Until I "hit it big" as a writer, I decided I'd get a job in publishing to learn how to get published from the inside. I ended up really loving being an editor, and spent eight years editing science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other stuff at Dell Publishing. Finally I realized I'd never make any headway in my own writing unless I got out of the rat race, so 6 years ago I left NYC to concentrate on my own writing. Now I write, freelance edit, and run the Odyssey Writing Workshop.
Atvar WOW...do you miss NYC?
Jeanne Not at all. I loved it the first year I lived there then it really wore me down. I'm just not a big-city girl. I love living up in the wilds of New Hampshire.
Atvar What was that Awful Novel you mentioned?
Jeanne It was an 800-page psychic Western, set during the Civil War. From the large "psychic Western" section in your Barnes & Noble, you can imagine how commercial this idea was.
St4rchild hehe
Atvar Wow, 800 pages?
Jeanne And it was all typed on a typewriter, over and over again. I'm very lucky it was never published. It was awful. Or perhaps luck had nothing to do with it .
Atvar Do you ever reach a point where you feel a novel isn't going anywhere and you must scrap it?
Jeanne I usually have an idea of what the end is, but I'm not always sure how to get there. Besides the 800-page thing, I have another unpublished SF novel, of a more reasonable length, and then a half-finished rock-singer novel. The rock-singer novel suffered from my editing job, which didn't allow me time to work on it but I do sort of feel like it wasn't going anywhere interesting enough to continue. I'd like to take the basic idea and reformulate it at some point. These days I outline everything very carefully, so I know what I'm doing in each scene, and I have direction. Sometimes I deviate from the outline, but at least I have my original idea to serve as a sort of guide. For this Babylon 5 trilogy I wrote, I first did a 200-page outline. Didn't really plan for it to be that long, but that's what happened. I'm crazy!
Atvar Is the Outline the most important part of writing?
Jeanne I think it's critical. The outline is mainly the plot, and the plot forms the skeleton of the story or if you think of architecture, it forms the basic structure of the building. If it's not sound, then the story won't work, no matter how great a writer you are.
Atvar I try that with my audit reports
Jeanne It's important to take a look at the bones--do an X-ray, so to speak--which is what the outline is. Some authors can't outline ahead of time, so I encourage them to outline after a first draft, to see what they've done.
St4rchild What got you to want to do those "Science of..." books?
Jeanne The idea of finally exploring those wild scientific ideas I'd had when I was young, that had originally driven me into science, was very appealing. I was tired of being told that we can't travel faster than the speed of light, that alien life doesn't exist, that planets are extremely rare, and so on, and it was a lot of fun to do the research and discover that all this stuff is a lot more plausible than we ever thought when the first Star Wars movie came out.
Atvar Can we? Does it? Are They?
Jeanne Planets are common! At least 10% of all stars have them! We've discovered that only in the last 10 years.
* Teal blinks.
Jeanne Alien life now seems an unavoidable byproduct of the universe, not some rare, miraculous occurrence. We've figured this out in the last 10 years too, based on finding life on Earth in places we thought it could never exist, like at temperatures above boiling, (yeah, boiling water doesn't kill all the germs) and at temperatures far below freezing. We now think only three things are necessary for life to form water, heat, and organic molecules. All three are very common in the universe.
Atvar What about FTL travel?
Jeanne We may not be able to go faster than light, but we can bend space to create shortcuts assuming we have enough energy . . .). So we could potentially find wormholes or create wormholes to take us through hyperspace (hyperspace is real). These would serve as shortcuts from one place to another.
Teal Do you think anything that we could make could hold together to go faster than light?
Jeanne We can go faster than light. That's not the problem. We can't go *at* the speed of light. That's what Einstein proved . . .
Teal Depends on how you look at it..
Jeanne So the problem is if you are currently going slower than light and you want to go faster, for one instant , as you accelerate, you have to go *at* the speed of light, and that's not possible, based on what we know. It would be easier to find a wormhole, which is a tunnel through space, and just take the shortcut. No need to go fast when you take the shortcut.
Atvar Do you find that fans of X-Files and Star Wars like your Science Of books or hate them?
Jeanne Most of the people I've heard from have really liked them. Sometimes people contact me with their own suggestions about how things might work they have their own theories about light sabers or whatever, and they want to share them.
Atvar Are they useful ideas?
Jeanne People seem to respond to the fact that I love X-Files and Star Wars too. Most of them, I think, aren't practical, but a couple have been pretty interesting, and maybe possible.
Teal What are some of the ideas that people have told you about..?
Jeanne This one guy had a big relativistic theory about FTL travel. I'm afraid I can't recall the specifics.
Atvar A question from the message board "Will you do a Science of Bablyon 5?"
Jeanne There's certainly more science in B5 than in a lot of SF. If they asked me to, and the time was right, I'd do it.
SteveL You seem to be involved in Media tie-ins. Do you have work in a world of your own creation as well?
Jeanne Right now, I want to work on a novel set in my own universe. Wow--I had already typed out the above before I saw your question, Steve. I had left publishing with the hope of finishing the rock-singer novel and getting that published . . .
SteveL I'm psychic like that Jeanne )
Jeanne Then I somehow got obsessed with writing about Anna Sheridan, and I ended up writing my first B5 novel, The Shadow Within. After that, I was approached to write the X-Files book, and after that the Star Wars book, and after that the B5 trilogy. I kind of gave up on the rock-singer book around the time I did The Science of the X-Files, when I got this new, better idea. That's the novel I'd like to write now. It was inspired by some of the research I discovered working on the X-Files book. I've turned down 3 tie-in projects in the last 3 weeks, so hopefully I'll stay strong, and no one will come to me with something I love so much that I can't say no (which is what happened with the earlier books). This will be a near-future biological SF/thriller.
Atvar Is it hard writing in someone else's universe?
Jeanne It is hard. You have to be consistent with everything that's been shown and sometimes you come up with a great idea, but you can't use it because it would contradict some very minor point that's been set up before so you have to think of another solution. That forces you to be more creative, in ways, and I found that the solutions I eventually found were often more interesting than my original "great" ideas, so I think it was a very good challenge for me.
Atvar And I bet the fans will really let you know if you leave out a detail!!!
Jeanne They're always looking!
Atvar I think they live for that stuff!
Atvar Who are your biggest influences?
Jeanne I think I have a lot of small influences, but I'll try to name a few. H.G. Wells, Philip K. Dick, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Frank Conroy and lots of movies, of course.
Atvar Favorite movie?
Jeanne Top movies would be Planet of the Apes, Road Warrior, Dead Zone, Star Wars, Evil Dead.
Atvar I think I'm in Love!
Jeanne Rambo!
Atvar Great choices!
Jeanne I picked my husband because he liked the same movies I did.
Atvar Did you meet at a convention?
Jeanne No, I met him at Dell Publishing.
Jeanne The Dead Zone was on the other day, and I realized that the main character of the Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy, Galen, has a lot in common with that main character, Johnny Smith. They both have a power that brings them mostly pain. I liked that idea.
ododo I've been told that publishers won't look at a novel unless it's at least 80,000 words. Is that the case?
Jeanne If that were true, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY would never have been published. No. Publishers prefer books that are between 80,000-100,000 words . . .
Teal They actually count?
Jeanne because that makes the finances work for them. Yes, they'll do a word count by counting the words on a page and estimating the total. You have to do that, when you're an editor considering buying a manuscript, because you have to estimate how much money the book will make.
* Teal wonders if words like a, and, the are counted..
Atvar Me too, Teal!
Jeanne That depends on how long it is. The longer it is, the more paper it takes,
Teal Make the print small.
Jeanne so the more expensive it is to print. Publishers can't always raise the cover price to cover the additional expense, so they need to print more copies of a long book so that each book, through bulk, costs less to print.
Atvar I've read some manuscripts from authors I've met online, and I noticed they all had the word count on the first page. I thought that was their own idea.
Jeanne Talk about small print, Teal, have you seen CASTING SHADOWS, the first book of the trilogy? They should sell it with a magnifying glass.
* Teal has been reading some of George R. R. Martin's books.. wonders how much it cost for those to get published..
Jeanne I wrote a book longer than they wanted, because the story is complex,
* Teal chuckles.
Jeanne so they just shrunk down the type. If your book is over 100,000 words, then the publisher has to have a lot of faith that it will sell significant amounts. (they could be wrong, but they have to have faith).
Atvar unless you are Stephen King
Jeanne They *know* Stephen King will sell, and sell a lot. They can also raise the cover prices for his books, and know his fans will pay
Teal Hrm. Do you think a 1000 page book is over 80,000-100,000 words?
Jeanne Absolutely. A book of about 100,000 words is usually about 400 manuscript pages, double spaced.
Teal Oh well.. then the publishers of this guys book must've had a lot of faith in him. ^^
Jeanne You have 2 1/2 books there. Either he has a proven track record of sales, or they made a huge leap of faith.
Teal And his work..
Atvar Jeanne, do you feel the internet and eBooks are the future?
Jeanne I think they will play a part in publishing, but I don't think the majority of books will be sold as eBooks. They are too inconvenient to read and too hard on the eyes. I know the technology is improving but I still think books on paper are going to be the majority.
Teal Somewhere in the far future they'll have little microchips to plant in your head that plays the book whenever you want to read it.. *quiets down*
SteveL For how long, Jeanne?
Atvar when my hard drive crashed, I lost some e-books (
Atvar but not my paperbacks
Jeanne Sorry to hear that. That's my issue.
* Teal has the book of Tea on his computer..
SteveL Atvar, most ebook mf will replace them free.
Atvar really, Steve?
SteveL Yes, Atvar. Really.
Jeanne I don't want to buy Stephen King's latest book on some eformat that will be abandoned in 5 years, and then my reader breaks down and I can't read it any more, and I have to buy another version in another format it's like music all over again. I've got so many soundtrack albums that I can't play anymore--no record player. The Road Warrior, for one! And Planet of the Apes for another!
Atvar I noticed the internet has been very helpful for some authors. Do you use it?
Jeanne Yes, I think it helps to connect with readers more directly. I have a website at http//www.sff.net/people/jcavelos that has information about my books, my various publicity appearances, and what I'm working on now and it's very helpful to list the URL in my books, so people can find me and contact me, and I can let them know when I have a new book out or whatever.
DaveKuz Do you feel that the Internet provides a good marketing tool?
Teal Didn't load..*tries..again*
Atvar Folk, if you forget that URL, there is a link to Jeanne (PLUS an Amazon.com link to buy her books!!!) on the cybling web site
Jeanne It's still developing, but it is very useful, particularly with certain types of books for example, with tie-ins, you can go to websites devoted to Babylon 5, or Star Wars, or whatever, and you can reach people who are interested in exactly what you've written about. With a more general-interest book, that would be much more difficult.
Teal cybling has a website? *Blinks*
Atvar www.cybling.com
* SteveL notes Jeanne is using the Internet for promotion right now
Jeanne I didn't mean to diss ebooks. I think they will be very useful in certain areas . . .
Atvar HA!, Good point, Steve )
Jeanne for example, I subscribe to the Encyclopedia Brittanica and do some basic research for my various projects there. That used to be a set of books, but it's much easier and cheaper to subscribe to it on the Internet for $5/month, and get the latest version.
Atvar I do like ebooks, I've found them to be a little cheaper than paperback
* Teal doesn't like paying for stuff.. thinks it should be free for him because he's special.
Jeanne Of course you're special!
Atvar Jeanne, I noticed that you will be attending ICON in a few weeks...
antipode Jeanne (does that sound like Jean/Gene?), I noticed you said earlier "a wormhole IS a tunnel to somewhere else". Aren't you analyzing sf science in the same way James Watt would analyze the means with which we're having this conversation?
Atvar do you enjoy attending conventions? Or are they a necessary evil?
DaveKuz Do you feel that then that electronic publishing might evolve into imprints where authors are groomed for later inclusion into the hard copy book market?
* Teal blinks.
Jeanne I enjoy seeing my friends, and they're usually at cons.
Teal Yea.. real.. special..
Jeanne Being a writer is a solitary thing, and most of my friends are other writers and people I've met through the Internet, or through publishing, who live in many places far from me. A con is a great place for us all to meet. So if friends are there, I like it. If not, I feel a bit awkward.
LizzieBlue A number of e-published authors are already in print--their publishers offer print-on-demand as well.
Jeanne Sorry I'm falling behind on these questions . . .
Atvar In that case, I'm bringing my camera to ICON!
Jeanne The authors who are doing best online are those who are already established.
ododo Is it still true that approaching a publisher without an agent is at best ineffective?
Jeanne Ododo, it depends on what area your book is in.
Atvar OK, folks, let us give Jeanne a chance to catch up on the questions before asking a new question
Jeanne If it's SF/F/H, you still have a chance with some of those editors, even if you don't have an agent. IN other areas, it's harder. My advice is to always *try* to get an agent first. If you can't, you can still try submitting to publishers directly. But you have a much better shot of success if you have an agent. Remember, you not only want to sell your book, you want the publisher to make a big commitment to it. That not only means more money, but it means they will promote the book and print more copies. If your first novel bombs, chances are you'll never be able to sell the second. And whether it succeeds or not depends very little on what's inside, and mostly on the cover and how it's promoted.
DaveKuz Are there any online authors, currently, who you feel will make the jump to hardcopy publishing?
Jeanne I haven't read anything for fun in the last two years; I've been writing 12-20 hours a day . . . on the Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy. So I can't comment.
Teal 12-20 hours a day.. don't sleep much?
Jeanne I think there are several good SF/F fiction sites on the web. When it's deadline time, you don't sleep much.
St4rchild (sorry, OT) I am curious to know what sort of relationship you had with the X-Files' official Science girl (don't remember name), whom also seems to have come out with a science of the x-files book.
Jeanne I've never met the woman who did the other book on the science in the X-Files. I had sold my proposal to Berkley about 8 months before she sent her proposal out . . .
St4rchild ahh
Atvar I did not know there was another X-files book out
Jeanne so I was over halfway through writing my book when she sold her proposal.
antipode Now?
Jeanne I certainly think it was a good idea for *one* book . . . ) I've never read her book. I did get a little frustrated to learn that she was paid about 10 times what I was paid.
St4rchild i could imagine, heh
Atvar Same publishers?
St4rchild that sucks -/
Atvar OUCH
Jeanne But that's what you get for being friends with Chris Carter.
Jeanne No, different publishers.
Jeanne But my book came out before hers, and sold well, so I'm happy.
St4rchild thas cool
Jeanne Okay, I'll say it--when the NY Times reviewed her book . . . they said mine was more fun and more accurate.
Atvar YEAY!!!
St4rchild sweet ^_^
Jeanne For me, that was better than the big paycheck.
kissfan LOL! that works!
Atvar Hope you have that review framed!
St4rchild that's pretty cool considering she was the official science consultant (or something) for the show.
Jeanne Yeah, I didn't have access to any inside information.
antipode Jeanne (does that sound like Jean/Gene?), I noticed you said earlier "a wormhole IS a tunnel to somewhere else". Aren't you analysing sf science in the same way James Watt would analyze the means by which we're having this conversation?
Jeanne Perhaps. I am speculating a great deal. You can't talk about FTL travel without speculating a great deal. We believe wormholes exist, but we've never yet found one. We also think they may be smaller than an atom, which would make traveling through one difficult . . . And we think they may collapse within a fraction of a second of forming, which would make being in the right place at the right time to use one even more difficult. I've been searching my backyard for a wormhole between my house and Harrison Ford's, but I haven't found one yet.
SteveL LOL!!!!
kissfan LOL!
St4rchild hehe
Jeanne Theoretically, though, we believe they exist. So I won't give up!
Atvar HA!
Teal Searching your backyard? *Blinks*
Teal With what? ^^
Jeanne An iguana?
* Teal laughs.
DaveKuz Wonderful meeting you. Sorry I have to leave so soon. Regards!
SteveL Have to run...Night all
St4rchild hehe, is he still trying to mate with you?
Jeanne Not right now, but come Spring . . . he'll be at it again.
St4rchild hehe, all that pheromone stuff is interesting. I might buy one of those commercial "sex magnet colognes" and give it a whirl.
Jeanne You may attract male iguanas from all over the county!
St4rchild LOL
Atvar well, the official part of the chat is now over, though we will never ever throw out a guest of honor, Jeanne is welcome to stay as lond as she wants
kissfan LOL ya with all this snow here it does make it tought HEHEE
Teal o.o
Jeanne I had a lot of fun talking with you guys.
St4rchild yeah, great to have ya here.
Atvar Any final parting words, Jeanne?
kissfan Nice to meet you neighbor
Teal Sounds like Mr. Rogers..
Atvar Jeanne, when I see you at ICON, I'll introduce my self as Atvar/BlackCyberC/John
kissfan Heck she live in NH and I am in Maine
LizzieBlue Close enough.[g]
Jeanne Thanks for coming, and if you want to drop by my website or e-mail me some time, I'd be happy to hear from you (especially if you've read one of my books!) ) I may be doing some bookstore appearances in Maine . . .
Atvar I have Science of Star Wars autographed!
LizzieBlue My husband has--I'll have to wrestle it away from him.
kissfan That would be cool!
Jeanne if you have any stores you'd suggest, e-mail them to me.
Ryan Feel free to join us again, Jeanne )
Atvar Yes, Please come back again soon!
Jeanne Thanks. You asked really interesting questions. It was very fun.
Atvar Thanks
Jeanne Now my husband is folding all the laundry, so I better go help him. Ah, the glamorous life of a writer . . .
* Ryan smiles.
kissfan LOL tell me about it!
Jeanne Bye!
Atvar LOL!
Atvar BYE
kissfan LOL bye!

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